Are Age-Related Differences Uniform Across Different Inhibitory Functions?

Objectives: In the current experiment, we examined the relative age-sensitivity of 3 inhibitory functions: access, deletion, and restraint by taking into consideration their underlying control processes: proactive and reactive control.

Methods: The 3 inhibitory functions were measured using a sequential flanker task. Young (age: 18-35, n = 24) and older adults (age: 60-75, n = 25) first memorized a series of 8 animal words in a fixed order.

The role of age and inhibitory efficiency in working memory processing and storage components.

In this study, we examined the extent to which inhibitory efficiency accounted for age-related decline in the processing and storage components of working memory. Older and younger adults performed a sequential task, which served as an index of deletion-type inhibition (the ability to suppress no-longer-relevant information). The reading span task was used to measure working memory components by examining processing accuracy, processing time, and end-word recall of sentences presented.